Facing the Blues at SKY Stadium, the Hurricanes wanted to be ruthless in taking their chances while also knowing that securing bonus points, and preventing them for their opponents would be a big help in their final position in Super Rugby Aotearoa.
Competition leaders, the Crusaders, were not out of sight but the Hurricanes could have been more ruthless against the Chiefs to prevent them gaining a bonus point while also securing one for themselves.
"That's something we've got to work at. It's around our whole game and being ruthless and stopping soft tries," he said.
The choice of Peter Umaga-Jensen at centre was to do with getting over the advantage line, especially against the bigger Blues side, Holland said. It was something Vince Aso could also do but Umaga-Jensen was the choice for this week.
The competition between the players, across the team, was something that made selection meetings interesting. The choice of Billy Proctor on the bench ahead of Aso was to do with Proctor covering fullback
"These derbies are battles. Getting the recovery at the front end of the week and being ready to go and whatever you have to get through to be ready before the following weekend is part of the trick of this competition. It's an ongoing thing and every team is going to have those bumps and bruises and it's whether or not they can front up the following week," he said.
Holland said the Hurricanes had a slow start to the competition but they had sorted some things in their game out and want to push forward to give themselves every chance in the final run to the tape.
While the game would be former Hurricanes star Beauden Barrett's first game back in Wellington since moving north, Holland said that would not be an issue for them.
He repeated his earlier claim that Barrett's younger brother Jordie was the best fullback in the competition, ahead of his older brother and also Crusaders star Will Jordan, and the important thing for him was to stay there.
"For me, he's streets ahead of everyone else in 15," he said.
Holland said they would have played Beauden Barrett at first five-eighths if still with them but teams made selection decisions for reasons that best suited them. He had performed at fullback for the Blues while the fact he wasn't at first five-eighths gave the Hurricanes some piece of mind.